A siblings’ bond throughout the years

April 24, 2016 at 12:05a.m.

AUSTINTOWN

Terri Prestis strongly feels that too many of today’s families neither share the close bonds nor the respect for one another that commonly were seen in families from bygone days.

So if you ask her about one of the main reasons she derives such joy and pleasure in being part of Nellie Leeson and Stephen Piurkoski-Parnell’s lives, she likely will cite the closeness the two siblings share with each other and the rest of their large family.

“I consider everybody like aunts and uncles,” said the Canfield woman, who is a longtime friend of Leeson, 89, and Piurkoski-Parnell, 98, and acts as their caregiver. “This family showed me so much love, togetherness and respect for each other. You just want to be there for them and give them support so they’re not alone.”

With Prestis as an integral part of their lives, Leeson and Piurkoski-Parnell need not worry about being alone.

Prestis reminisced and shared old and more-current photographs of the family she brought during a recent visit with Leeson, who is a resident at Austinwoods Rehabilitation Health Care Center on Kirk Road. Afterward, she stopped by to catch up with Piurkoski-Parnell, who is undergoing physical and rehabilitation therapy at Humility House, a long-term care and assisted-living center on Ohltown Road, before he returns to his Austintown apartment.

Leeson and Piurkoski-Parnell are two of the late Walter and Helen Patrosky Piurkoski’s 11 children, seven of whom are still living. The eldest, Felix G. Piurkoski-Parnell, died last month at age 99.

Felix, a 1934 Hubbard High School graduate, served three years in the Army during World War II, where his duties included using his skills as a machinist to build bridges for U.S. troops. The decorated veteran also worked for 42 years at Republic Steel as a welder, then spent time repairing cars and traveling. Prestis said that after the siblings’ parents died, he often helped his brothers and sisters financially.

After the death of Felix’s wife, Anne M. Zaklukeiwicz-Parnell, in 1988, he lived for about 15 years with Leeson, whose husband owned Leeson’s Auto Body in Boardman, Prestis continued.

“Boy, that’s years back – more than 80 years,” Leeson said while looking at family photographs and remembering the cows, chickens and other animals that lived on the family farm in Hubbard during her childhood.

A big smile came across Leeson’s face when she glanced at a photo of Felix’s 99th birthday party, along with a black-and-white one showing her grandmother and great-grandmother. During her time with Prestis, Leeson also recalled her father’s having grown a variety of produce on the farm, some of which he sold on the side of the road, along with the arduous work she had of carrying and peeling sacks of potatoes.

Her father also was handy as a cobbler, which included repairing family members’ shoes, remembered Leeson, who worked at a downtown Youngstown restaurant before volunteering at the local chapter of the American Red Cross, for which she received a 20-year pin.

“We never had holes,” she said with laughter, referring to shoes she and her brothers and sisters wore.

Their father’s penchant for extending the life of his children’s shoes was passed down to Stephen, who recalled having learned that and several other skills from him. Stephen, a 1935 Hubbard High graduate who played on the football team, remembered that in addition to maintaining the family farm, his father also helped make oil tanks for a factory in Masury.

After being laid off from his job as a press operator and having little luck finding work, Stephen and his wife, Mary, moved to Santa Monica, Calif., where he worked for the city of Los Angeles. After about five years, the WWII Army veteran who had served in Africa and Normandy, France, returned to the Mahoning Valley, where he worked 22 years for the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., he said.

For now, the proud family man is trying diligently to regain his strength so he will be able to attend his granddaughter Calli Peacock’s wedding next month in Laurel, Md.

“They’re working me really hard here,” Stephen said with a chuckle, referring to his rehabilitation therapists.

For her part, Prestis plans to continue doing what she can to enrich the two siblings’ lives by making her weekly visits, which entail a healthful mix of nostalgia and family news – all with plenty of smiles and laughter.

“They’re like my extended family,” she said.